Occupy Wall Streethttp://livingchurch.org/taxonomy/term/84/all
enTwo Communion Cultureshttp://livingchurch.org/two-communion-cultures
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p><strong>Our Unity in Christ<br />In Support of the Anglican Covenant<br />An Apologetic Series</strong></p>
<p>By Peter M. Doll</p>
<p>For much of this winter St. Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London was the reluctant host to an Occupy Movement encampment. On one side of the cathedral was a community of idealistic protestors angry about the way in which unfettered capitalism had brought a host of national economies to their knees and concerned about the impact of the recession on the most vulnerable in society. On the other side (figuratively) were the champions of global capitalism — unchastened, and apparently indifferent to the plight of those their mismanagement had ruined.</p>
<p>St. Paul’s was stuck in the middle of two cultures: one committed to controlling markets for the sake of community flourishing, the other committed to free-market capitalism. With the first it shared the values of the kingdom of heaven, to the second it was linked by years of financial support necessary to the maintenance of the fabric, worship, and mission of the cathedral. The Dean and Chapter’s long-standing commitment to fostering dialogue between the financial world of the City and the values of God’s kingdom were seemingly of no avail in the crisis in which they found themselves.</p>
<p>As it considers whether to commit itself to the Anglican Covenant, the Church of England likewise finds itself caught between a rock and a hard place. It too is torn between the demands of two cultures. The communion theology of the Anglican Covenant is the fruit of the ecumenical movement that flourished in the 1970s and ’80s, when ecclesial reunion, particularly between Canterbury and Rome, seemed not simply an idle dream but a real possibility. The tide of ecumenism has receded, however, and after those heady days the prevalent ecclesiology has been more hard-headed, business-like, and inwardly focussed.</p>
<p>This business culture in the church followed in the wake of the deregulation of the City of London in the late 1980s, which sparked the economic boom that fuelled an orgy of business expansion, property speculation, and virtual prosperity. Government and society prized business and its values as the source of these benefits, and the church, lest it seem unresponsive to the signs of the times, also signed up to the business model. Sarah Coakley describes one of the products of this period as “a notable turn in priestly life to secular bureaucratic models of ‘leadership,’ ‘efficiency’ and mission-‘efficacy’ and an almost-unnoticed capitulation to the idolatry of <em>busyness</em>.”</p>
<p>One characteristic of this development was a devaluing of the distinctive theological language of the Church, a language which had only recently been such an effective tool of ecumenical reconciliation. There was a narrowing focus on certain cardinal issues — particularly women’s ministry and human sexuality — and on using political and bureaucratic means to fight the battles raging around these issues. Theological illiteracy led to an absolutizing of liberal and conservative positions based either on an unquestioning acceptance of developments in secular ideology as normative for the Church or on a dogmatic insistence on the inability of the Church to develop or change its mind on these issues. The traditional comprehensiveness of the Church of England, the conviction that it is a broad church that must be a home to a wide diversity of views, has been a victim of this narrowing of vision.</p>
<p>Just as the economic collapse has led to a recognition of the danger of unregulated markets, so the new climate has prompted a reassessment of the business model of ministry, a rediscovery of, as Sarah Coakley puts it, “the primary priestly roles of presence, prayer, and spiritual mediator-ship.” Archbishop Rowan Williams has noted that “there is something toxic about the way in which we currently expect clergy to work: we need, together, to liberate clergy not only from bureaucratic processes but also from inappropriate business models of completing tasks as opposed to engaging prayerfully with God and with God’s people.” I believe that the Anglican Covenant gives the Church of England the opportunity to eschew the winner-take-all, political approach to our common life and to re-prioritise prayerful and thoughtful engagement with God and with one another.</p>
<p>The Covenant is an expression of an approach to ecclesiology called <em>conciliarism</em>, originating in the teaching that the authority of councils of the Church is above that of popes. One of the seminal insights recovered by the Second Vatican Council, conciliarism has long been a foundational principle within Anglicanism: a conviction of the accountability of the local church to the faith of the universal Church. In contrast to a centralized model of Church authority, it speaks of authority as dispersed throughout the Body of Christ. The Body needs to speak in common to reflect its unity. This belief is developed in the Covenant document according to the principle that what affects the communion of all should be decided by all (see <em>Windsor Report</em> §51).</p>
<p>In contemporary ecumenical discussions, the tradition of conciliar theology is represented by the prominence of “communion” (in Greek <em>koinonia</em>) as the heart of the life of the Church. The fellowship of the Church is the life of God the Holy Trinity, the mutual self-giving love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The God who creates human beings in his own image and likeness creates us for communion with him and with one another in the Body of Christ.</p>
<p>The communion principle is crucial for ecumenical relations for obvious reasons. If, as is commonly acknowledged, all Christians are united by baptism in the Body of Christ, then it is impossible for any denomination to dismiss any other, for one group of Christians to say to another “I have no need of you” (1 Cor. 12:21). Christ has broken down the dividing walls of human sin and estrangement and made us one (Eph. 2.12-22). Therefore we have an obligation to listen to, belong to, be accountable to one another, to live as those who know themselves to be new creatures in God through baptism and the grace of the Holy Spirit.</p>
<p>Communion ecclesiology is the foundation of the Covenant document. <em>The Eames Commission Report</em> of 1989-90 insisted on the need for a patient “reception” of developments within the life of the Anglican Communion. <em>The Virginia Report</em> of 1997 emphasised interdependence and mutual accountability in communion. <em>The Windsor Report </em>of 2004 looked to a structure that would enable Anglicans to live with difference. All the reports have agreed that communion principles are the only conceivable foundation for the renewal of common life in the Anglican family.</p>
<p>Reports are one thing. How can we live out these principles in our common life? Archbishop Rowan matched principles with deeds in his organisation of the Lambeth Conference in 2008. Gone were the politicking, the debating, the strategic voting and resolutions that had marked the format of recent conferences. In their place came common prayer, common study of the Scriptures, and listening to God and to one another. Here was a new way of living the life of communion that wasn’t new at all, but a Christ-like pattern that worked with the primordial image of God in which all have been created. Human beings are made by God not for the survival of the fittest but for communion.</p>
<p>Here is the challenge the Covenant poses to the churches of the Anglican Communion: to commit themselves to a deeper fellowship with one another. “Each Church freely offers this commitment to other Churches in order to live more fully into the ecclesial communion and interdependence which is foundational to the Churches of the Anglican Communion” (Covenant 4.1.1). Take away the wrangling over the particular political issues that divide us, and this is what we are left with: a conviction that through mutual openness, common prayer and study we can dispense with our proud, defensive, and individualistic autonomies and be led by the Holy Spirit into all truth.</p>
<p>The difficulty for the Church of England is that on the whole we seem to feel safer and happier holding on to the purity of our own convictions, dismissing the equally deeply held beliefs of those with whom we disagree, and relying on political structures to establish winners and losers. Engaging in dialogue and seeking consensus are apparently too protracted and too costly for us. The logic of market-driven theology remains deeply attractive to many.</p>
<p>The premise of the Anglican Covenant is that our Christian vocation demands that the churches of our communion need to grow closer in unity and mutual understanding with one another. It is about having the courage of our theological convictions. If God has indeed called us all in baptism into the eternal relationship of mutual love and self-giving that is the life of the Holy Trinity, then we cannot deny our belonging to him and to one another. If the Gospel calls us to love one another, to be subject and accountable to one another, then we must be obedient and patient, trusting that in the power of the Holy Spirit God will lead us together into all truth. This may mean that we won’t have what we want when we want it. But if this way is Christ’s way, then it is necessarily the way of the cross. If our journey in faith to unity is to be meaningful, then it will be costly and sacrificial when we are true to him and to one another.</p>
<p><em>The Rev. Peter M. Doll is Canon Librarian of Norwich Cathedral and author of </em>Revolution, Religion, and National Identity: Imperial Anglicanism in British North America 1745-1795.</p>
<p><em><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">The Living Church</span> launched Our Unity in Christ, a series of essays supporting the proposed Anglican Covenant, in February 2011. An introduction and complete index to the series are available <a href="http://livingchurch.org/our-unity-christ-introduction">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Photo: Neil Cummings, Flickr, via <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Occupy_London_-_police.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a>.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anglican-covenant" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Anglican Covenant</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/conciliarism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">conciliarism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/occupy-movement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">occupy movement</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/occupy-wall-street" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Occupy Wall Street</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/st-pauls-cathedral" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">st. paul&#039;s cathedral</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/lead-story" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Lead Story</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/essays-reviews" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Essays &amp; Reviews</a></div></div></div>Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:42:19 +0000Douglas LeBlanc207 at http://livingchurch.orgCouncil Nixes Covenant, Backs Peaceful Protestshttp://livingchurch.org/content/council-nixes-covenant-backs-peaceful-protests
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>One version of the lyrics to “Weave” is available <a href="http://www.livingwaterunity.org/music-program/Hymns/weave.htm">here</a>. Embedded video is from <a href="http://thehomeoftruth.org/">Home of Truth Spiritual Center</a>, Alameda, Calif.</p>
<p>Via the Episcopal Church’s <a href="http://www.episcopalchurch.org/newsline_130305_ENG_HTM.htm">Office of Public Affairs</a></p>
<p>A Message from Executive Council<br />Salt Lake City, October 21-24, 2011</p>
<p><em>Weave, weave, weave …</em><br /><em>Weave us together in unity and love.</em><br />[from the Weave song attributed to Rosemary Crow]</p>
<p>All day long on Thursday, October 20, the Executive Council gathered. Members came from Bogota in the Diocese of Colombia, from Seattle in the Diocese of Olympia, from the Standing Rock Reservation in the Diocese of North Dakota, from St. Thomas in the Diocese of the Virgin Islands, all ready for their seventh of nine meetings in this triennium. Some traveled only a little more than an hour by air while others spent 18 hours or more making connections and weathering flight delays. Steve Hutchinson of the Diocese of Utah was the only Council member able to sleep in his own bed in Salt Lake City each night as his colleagues came to meet in his home town.</p>
<p>Each was eager to greet colleagues and friends and dive into the full schedule of the meeting when it officially began on Friday morning. Council members had already become immersed in the papers and reports, budget and financial statements that have been posted to the online community known as the Extranet on a constant basis over the past month. A new norm for Council requests that documents be posted fourteen days in advance to allow for translation into Spanish, the native language of several Council members; simultaneous translators are present at Council meetings to facilitate participation. We are living into a new season of weaving our threads of interdependence together in the spirit of ubuntu — you in me and I in you, the theme of our last General Convention.</p>
<p>This Council meeting was one day longer than the typical meetings in the triennium because Council considered the draft proposed budget that Council will submit to the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance at General Convention. Council also approved the 2012 budget for the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS) and Council’s report to the 77th General Convention, commonly referred to as the “Blue Book.” Also on the agenda were reports to General Convention from the D020 Task Force, including a resolution responding to the Anglican Covenant, and the INC-055 Task Force, which was charged with studying the United Thank Offering’s current and future status.</p>
<p><em>We are many textures, we are many colors,</em><br /><em>… we are entwined in one another in one great tapestry</em></p>
<p>The first morning of Council brought three distinctive yet interwoven narratives from the Presiding Bishop, the President of the House of Deputies and the Chief Operating Officer. Each made important statements about how the work of Executive Council relates to the larger narratives of the life of the Church. There were moments of conflict as values held passionately by the three speakers were openly expressed. There were admonitions to find Jesus among the poor, to honor the hard work and witness of the whole people of the Church in all orders, to express how we carry out God’s mission in the shaping of a budget.</p>
<p>The experience of conflict in church meetings where budgetary discussions and vision are mixed together often make us wary of even trying to connect the dots, of weaving a whole story from the threads. Rich insights by committed leadership, accompanied by a common commitment to hear one another out, resulted in the beginnings of new stronger cloth.</p>
<p>In 2009, General Convention closed with a strong emphasis on mission, mission, mission. … God is calling the church to meet Jesus in the marginalized — the poor, the lonely, the suffering, the lost. Weave, weave, weave. … Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in her opening remarks challenged Council to regard budgets as moral documents. The 76th General Convention’s adoption of the Five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion as mission priorities are the threads that are woven through all the parts of The Episcopal Church’s budget.</p>
<p>So yes, our work began with passionate narrative. But by 11:30 of the first day the work of Council was well under way. We went from being at separate tables to being at the Lord’s Table. We shared simple Eucharist from a Lutheran liturgy in Spanish, celebrated by Pastor Kathryn Tiede, our ecumenical partner from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the threads of bible study formed into a collective amen to the Gospel.</p>
<p>The remainder of the first day and the morning of the second were devoted to committee work. Much of our time in committee was devoted to preparation of Blue Book materials, reports on work done in this Triennium and preparation of a budget for 2012 and beyond. Always in the background was the concern to shape our structures in such a way as to serve God’s mission better, the knowledge that change is in the offing, and the awareness that we have a choice to meet it by reaction or by preparation.</p>
<p>On Saturday afternoon we met in plenary session to have an open conversation about the core principles and budgeting strategies to be used in developing the draft budget for the years 2012-2015. In keeping with the core principle that says, “The voices of all the baptized are valued in the governance and decision-making of this Church,” almost everyone on Council contributed to the discussion. Other key principles and strategies include being especially attentive to the poor and the marginalized, providing enabling grants to support or create experimental, new expressions of the Church; and the notion that new structures may provide new resources and opportunities for ministry.</p>
<p>Sunday morning members of the group headed off to church. The Presiding Bishop preached at the St. Mark’s Cathedral, and some attended with her. Others visited St. Paul’s, Salt Lake City. The gospel — Matthew 22:34-46 — on the Law, the Messiah and the silenced questioners — called us to the core of our faith, to silence and to joyful obedience. We returned to our committee work in the afternoon, and a few committee members continued to meet after dinner to finalize resolutions for the plenary sessions on the final day.</p>
<p><em>We are different instruments playing our own melodies …</em><br /><em>But we are all playing in harmony in one great symphony.</em></p>
<p>Monday, the fourth day, began with Morning Prayer. As it ended and Council prepared to come into session, another slide came up on the screen. It showed Jesus on a park bench with a young man whose backpack is on the ground beside him. Jesus is leaning toward the young man, speaking intently. The caption says, “No, I’m not talking about Twitter. I literally want you to follow me.” The room erupted in laughter.</p>
<p>Council heard reports from its five standing committees and considered and voted on a large number of resolutions presented by those committees. Many of the resolutions perfected language of resolutions referred to General Convention as part of the Executive Council Blue Book report — the so-called “A” resolutions. Among the key resolutions passed by Council on this last meeting day were the following:</p>
<ul><li> Received the report of the INC-055 Ad Hoc Task Force on The United Thank Offering and commended it to the 77th General Convention and the Triennial Meeting of Episcopal Church Women in 2012, and approved the newly developed Bylaws for The United Thank Offering Board.</li>
<li>Received the report of the Executive Council D020 Task Force for inclusion in the 77th General Convention Blue Book and submits a resolution to the 77th General Convention that expresses thanksgiving for those who worked at producing the Anglican Covenant, commits The Episcopal Church to continued participation in the wider councils of the Anglican Communion and to continued dialogue with the provinces of the Anglican Communion, and states that The Episcopal Church is unable to adopt the Anglican Covenant in its present form.</li>
<li>Approved the 2012 budget of The Episcopal Church.</li>
<li>Requested the House of Bishops to consider issuing a new Pastoral Letter on the Sin of Racism at their March 2012 meeting and submitting a resolution to the 77th General Convention to recommit and declare itself to be dedicated to continuing to work against the sin of racism.</li>
<li>Affirms the growing movement of peaceful protests in public spaces in the United States and throughout the world in resistance to the exploitation of people for profit or power bears faithful witness in the tradition of Jesus to the sinful inequities in society, and calls upon Episcopalians to witness in the tradition of Jesus to inequities in society.</li>
</ul><p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="244" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZcWgImaFf0o" width="480"></iframe></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/executive-council" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Executive Council</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/anglican-covenant" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Anglican Covenant</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/occupy-wall-street" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Occupy Wall Street</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-categories-top field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Categories:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News</a></div></div></div>Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:39:16 +0000SHGrimes81 at http://livingchurch.org